When does an Architect draw?

When I take vacation I try to draw every day. When I traveled abroad in 2002 I carried only a camera, journal and sketch book all day. In every day life and at my job it is a treat when I get to draw.

But what it is about drawing? Is it similar to my kinesthetic learning preference? I will not design creatively if I am producing in cad. In a production type job, where time is money and delivering in a quick fashion is what the client prefers, when can I allow myself the luxury of using a pen and paper? I cannot choose colors on a computer either. I cannot get a feel of a place or figure out a detail without jotting down a three-dimensional problem. It is like solving math equations in your head. It is just easier to write it down.

The computer is a drafting tool helpful for repetitive and square foot programming. But in a recent project, once I devised a plan that worked for the client, I printed it out, overlayed it with trace and began to imagine living in the space. Looking down the street, helped by the ability to walk anywhere in the world with Google street view, judging where the sun would be and how people could be served off of the street helped fit the design to its place. Then, once the day dreaming phases with my pencil were over, I relayed the design into the computer for the first run of  documents.

Voila, the computer is used as the production tool, and I push drawing into this fast paced world of architecture.